Wireless communication systems are constantly evolving. System designers are continually developing greater numbers of features for both service providers as well as for the end users. In the area of wireless phone systems, cellular based phone systems have advanced tremendously in recent years. Wireless phone systems are available based on a variety of modulation techniques and are capable of using a number of allocated frequency bands. Available modulation schemes include analog FM and digital modulation schemes using Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Each scheme has inherent advantages and disadvantages relating to system architecture, frequency reuse, and communications quality. However, the features the manufacturer offers to the service provider and which the service provider offers to the consumer are similar between the different wireless systems.
Regardless of the modulation scheme in use, the wireless phone available to the end user has a number of important features. Nearly all wireless phones incorporate at least a keyboard for entering numbers and text, and a display that allows the user to display text, dialed numbers, pictures and incoming caller numbers. Additionally, wireless phones may incorporate cameras, electronic phonebooks, speed dialing, single button voicemail access, and messaging capabilities, such as e-mail.
Mobile subscribers are becoming increasingly connected to their mobile handsets which are often viewed as a necessary accessory. Also, the line between work life and personal life is increasingly blurred due to the workplace demands on many employees, combined with longer hours, flex-time schedules, etc. In many circumstances, mobile subscribers share a single mobile handset for their work related business and their personal life.
Very often subscribers misplace their phone or forget it somewhere and want to know where it is. Similarly, there are circumstances when the subscriber gets in an accident or is incapacitated and can't answer the phone to explain where they are. In these and other applications, it would be helpful if the subscriber, their family or law enforcement agencies could turn the mobile phone camera on and see the surroundings. However, such features and capabilities are not available in the known art.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved method and apparatus for remote mobile phone camera operation.